Detailed Sample Task: EAL Literacy
CLB 1L-Writing
Getting Things Done
Education and Learning
Real-World Task
Copy 2-3 items of personal information into a very simple form to sign up for an Indigenous cooking class.
Planning Context
Helpful Knowledge:
- Letter formation: capital and lowercase letters
- Number formation: 0-9
- Awareness of personal information
Context:
- Signing up for a class or workshop usually involves giving basic personal information such as name and telephone number.
- Filling out forms is a useful skill in many different contexts.
- This task reflects the intention to include all people in Canada in the themes. The language skills in this task could be applied to other contexts.
Vocabulary and Grammar
Sample Vocabulary:
- name
- address
- telephone number
- Indigenous
- class
- sign up
- form
- write
Sample Grammar:
- Capital letters for proper nouns such as names and street names
Knowledge and Strategies
Textual and Functional Knowledge:
- You need to match the size of your writing to the space on a form.
Sociolinguistic Knowledge:
- Taking a class or workshop is a good way to learn about another culture.
- Taking a class or a workshop is a good way to meet people.
Activities and Tasks
Sample Skill-Building Activities:
- Discuss as a class: Who are Indigenous Peoples? Where do they live?
- As a class, look at videos of Indigenous Peoples from your local area speaking, singing, dancing, or drumming.
- Learn the name of a local Indigenous People in your area.
- As a class, read a very simple story such as one of the stories from Canadian Indigenous Content. Read the story to learners several times over several days. Do comprehension activities such as pointing to a photograph and asking who or what this is.
- Review vocabulary. Practice words using vocabulary cards with large, clear pictures on a white background. Play games such as Bingo, matching, or Go Fish.
- Practice vocabulary by copying simple words, such as name or address underneath a word and clear photograph.
- Incorporate phonics activities based on vocabulary words and other vocabulary related to the topic.
- Review capital letters. Practice matching capital letters to lowercase letters (e.g. A to a and so on).
- Copy own name. Check for a capital letter at the start of your first and last name.
- Read a short list of classmates’ names, including your own. Circle your own name.
- Review numbers and sing Count by 1s to 10.
- Complete a simple, instructor-made worksheet where you count objects and circle the correct number.
- Copy own phone number.
- Copy own address.
- Practice personal information in a variety of ways to aid in retention.
- Discuss as a class: what do you have to do when you sign up for a class, such as an Indigenous cooking class? What information do you need to give?
Sample Skill-Using Tasks:
- Copy 2-3 items of personal information into a very simple form to sign up for an Indigenous craft workshop.
Sample Assessment Tasks:
- Copy 2-3 items of personal information into a very simple form to sign up for an Indigenous cooking class.
Teaching Considerations
Cultural Considerations:
- Learners at this level may be unfamiliar with Indigenous Peoples and cultures. Help learners to understand there are Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Digital Literacy Strategies:
Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline knowledge and digital skills.
Learners may need to:
- Have keyboarding and typing skills.
- Read information from a screen.
- Send and receive text messages and messages on other texting apps.
Instructors can:
- Dedicate time to improve digital literacy for learners.
- Make and/ or adapt digital materials.
- Support learners in navigating and using texting and messaging apps.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:
- Whenever possible, use authentic Indigenous sources for information about Indigenous Peoples.
- Always use the names Indigenous Peoples use for themselves rather than English names.
- Use diverse representations of people in all your learning resources and images, including people who are 2SLGBTQ+, Indigenous, Francophone and of other cultures, and people who have disabilities or who are neurodivergent. Consider this diversity as you choose names for characters in stories you create as well.
Trauma-informed Strategies:
Possible Trauma Triggers:
- Learners who have experienced trauma can be triggered by learning about the history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. When teaching about Indigenous Peoples and cultures, keep the information level-appropriate and watch for learners who may be triggered or require extra support.
- When teaching about Canada, you may teach about things that are triggering to learners who have experienced trauma. We can’t know what the triggers might be and what seems commonplace to us may have a triggering component for learners. Be aware of this and be prepared to support learners as needed.
Strategies:
- Give learners advance warning of this topic and be aware that there may be learners who require support.
- Learners who have experienced trauma often benefit from having routine. Create a safe and supportive classroom environment by establishing familiar routines, repeated activities, and model friendly and non-evaluative interactions.
- Learners will benefit from positive relationships established in the classroom with the instructor and peers.
- Learners who have experienced trauma benefit from having choices.
- Allow learners choice:
- the choice to work on a different topic
- the choice to share or not share their own experiences
- the choice to work alone or to work with others
- the choice to take care of themselves
- the choice to step out of the learning environment
- Allow learners choice:
- When learners have shared personal distressing or traumatic experiences, make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences. Follow the activities which may make learners feel vulnerable with routine, predictable and comforting activities.
- Giving learners the knowledge, skills and language to access resources can be empowering.
Resources
Outings, Guest Speaker Suggestions, Extension Activities:
- Have learners complete many forms for different things.
- Vary the format of forms over time, so learners can begin to transfer their knowledge from one format to a slightly different one.
Realia:
- Indigenous stories
- Videos of Indigenous People singing or dancing
Units and Modules:
Lessons and Activities:
- Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Numeric Focus: CLB 1L/2L
- Tutela (Archway): Personal Information: Alphabetic Focus: CLB 1L/2L
- Tutela: Personal Information Form: CLB 1 (Not literacy but can be adapted)
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Canadian Indigenous Content
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Reading Skills Stories
- The Literacy Centre of Expertise at TIES: Adults Learn to Print
- Tutela: Norquest LINC Phonics Curriculum: CLB 1L
- Tutela: Foundation L-CLB 2L Phonics Curriculum
- A search of NLCG (nlcg.achev.ca) may provide additional tasks that can be adapted.
Multimedia:
- Native Land
- Whose Land
- YouTube: What Does Indigenous Mean?
- YouTube: What is a Powwow?
- YouTube: Count by 1s to 10
Detailed Sample Task
This exemplar is aligned with the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and is designed to guide and inform your lesson and module planning. Consult the Canadian Language Benchmarks English as a Second Language for Adults for detailed performance descriptors at this benchmark and skill.
The information in this document is not exhaustive and can be expanded on. As well, you can use more learner-friendly language in your materials and assessments.
This is NOT a lesson or module plan.
